Why wacom destroyed my life and how a 30 cent pen saved it (Page 2 of 2)

This is a great discussion!

I do feel the need to defend my Mac as an artisitic medium.  I'm convinced that without it, I would not be a professional illustrator. 

I craved perfect, clean lines in my work, and I had no idea how to achieve them without a computer.  With illustrator, the colours are bright and ever-changeable, which i crave.

I always have a pen and paper with me when I travel, and I love to do pen and ink architectural sketches.  I still sketch a lot before I start an illustration on the computer as well.  I generally draw it 2-3 times on paper, using non-photo blue pencil.  Then, when i'm happy with it, I scan the sketch, and re-draw it completely using Illustrator, the pen tool, and my mouse.

Finally, I need the ability to compose on the computer.  If I didn't do this type of work, I might do paper cut-out illustrations so that I could have that same ability to re-compose!

My 2 ¢

Great thread! I'm an illustrator leading a double life--traditional illustration tools for children's books and personal work and digital design tools for corporate projects like logos and line-art. I thought I would enjoy having a wacom tablet when I bought it 4 years. But I tried it out and didn't like it one bit. It's collecting dust in my studio.

There's something very satisfying about creating art from paper, paint, pastel, pen and ink. It feels personal, deeper. Being active in both types of processes, I'd say that traditional media opens more doors to one's creativity. IMHO creating art that is strictly digital has boundaries (which are neither good nor bad) but they can be limiting to artists. I've had AD's tell me that what don't like it when a digitally created image looks, well, digital. I think I know what they mean. One can put only so much personality into lines created w/ bezier curves in Illustrator. Of course, that's what some people are after. It's a preference, stylistic thing.

To be fair, I have experimented a little and can say that some exciting, interesting new work can result from combining hand-rendered art and digital execution. But I haven't broken out my wacom tablet for those works either because I use my mouse for whatever touch up I need in Photoshop. My heart is with traditional art materials. :-)

Happy drawing!

Last edited by agent99 (2006-06-26 12:15:18)

you can argue about the feel, the experiance, of traditional painting versus digital for decades and still not come to a resolution. for instance, graffiti, i've been doing it for 14 years. some say that it's just vandalism without looking at what it from my perpestive. personally i love my tablet, and wouldn't touch any image on my computer without it.

and saying that. all my ideas start out as HORRIBLE looking sketches, that i refine, then refine again in photoshop with my tablet. it's not just for digital art either. i do use the tablet and photoshop to print out templates i use for stencils. the way i look at it is this; why make an oil painting thats photorealistic... if you can just take a picture? why take a picture if you have the memory? why paint instead of draw? why drink pepsi instead of water? because you can.

some people like drawing on news print, other's love drawing on copy paper. is either of them wrong? of course not. the important part is that they found something they are comfortable to create with. like myself, i start out on the computer, and end up on a canvas.

It doesn't surprise me that Frederik trashed his Wacom, his art is very raw and it's impossible to have that edgy feel when working solely digitally.  I haven't bought into the tablet thing yet but I'm strongly considering it.  I have a controlled style that reflects my personality, I use sharpies to draw and I don't mind the loss of line quality because I'm focusing on other things.  I love the computer for coloring images because I hate getting messy and owning paints that smell and all of that, that being said I do miss my edgier days of making charcoal life drawings and dipping sticks in ink, at least those mediums don't smell.  My style tends to reflect what medium I work in, I've tried most mediums and I tend to look for what is best in each one.  I remember doing my first watercolor still life and my high school art teacher saying I was a natural at the medium, but I never liked the washed out colors so I moved on to acrylics which I found too flat and plastic so I just stuck with pen and ink for the longest time because it was the easiest to control.  I never even considered oils, I knew they weren't for me, and I stayed away from computers because I hated the idea of staring at the screen all day. I just started with computer art a few months ago and I have to say it's lots of fun, but yeah, it tends to lead to sterile work but I've seen many examples of artists overcoming this by layering textures and intentionally leaving things imperfect.  Floating around the web I've seen so many artists I'm super jealous of and some are traditionalist and some totally digital, I tend to like the artists who find themselves and have a style that reflects their unique personality.  I've also seen loads of really bad digital art, people relying on the tricks and having no knowledge of composition or anatomy or anything, but what the hell, I've been making art since I could hold a pencil and I still have so much to learn and explore. 

So I'm exploring digital art for now, and my stuff won't be as good while I'm learning the new tricks and methods, I'm ok with that.  I see a place for the drawing tablets but I would hate for Fred to use one, it would ruin his style. 

Thank you Fred for being passionate about the issue, I totally agree it's the wrong tool for you, but I do like some of the perfect stuff too.

I exculusively use wacom. Good things about wacom are you can experiment on color palette and so many redoes are  available. One of Drawbacks is whtehter the colores you mixed on your own really come out precisely on putput or not. Anyway, I adore wacom and people who do  watercolor. Watercloro wasn't for me. I get so nervous try  not to make mistakes.

I draw with my hand as long as far as I can remember. I drew characters consisting of blobs and lines, I drew dinosaurs with hats
on, I drew whatever came to my mind. There where times in my life I wouldn`t have thought that I am going to make it my profession, but it was always with me, mostly during boring school classes.

Codos
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verdelola

I've used a tablet between 2000-2005 - back & forth fighting with it. I liked it then hated it. Until one day last December, I went to a friends studio and there stood a Cintiq. I tried it and wouldnt leave with out it.
That very next day I ordered the 20" model. This wacom you cannot hate. Pricey yes... but it's cut work time by so much. Sorry to rain on anyones parade.

Ah yes the pervasive digital age. My solution is this. I strive to be the best artist I can be with traditional and Digital media. Often times in the area of concept art it is useful and indeed essential to be good in both. you never know what will inspire the next great monster or cool car. For me the art has more to do with my thinking, my thought process and very little to do with what is actually seen. Anyone can use a filter or the latest custom brush,  not everyone can have a great idea. As for sponaeity This is a good way to work digitally. Work on one layer and do not control Z  your actions either : erase them , work into them or paint over them. Basically limit yourself to 'reality' if you feel you are cheating too much.

Last edited by Guest (2008-04-14 18:32:33)